Wildlife Conservation - Youth Education
Students learn about water quality monitoring on Jack Creek
Students use GPS to map Preserve features
The Jack Creek Preserve Foundation is proud to support K-12 education for local students through several programs.
In Big Sky, we are literally surrounded by wildlife, but it isn't very often you get to see any critters up close. During this program kids in grades K-5 get their hands on furs and feathers, pelts and pawprints, skulls and skins- all which teach them about where animals live, what they eat, and how they survive our crazy climate. Plus, we've got games and activities to help students experience the wildlife themselves! They learn where our wild neighbors like to eat, sleep and play so they'll know just where to go to watch them all year round.
In spring of 2011, the Foundation initiated an interpretive trail project that is not only getting trails on the ground at the Preserve, but is engaging local high school students to help teach them geospatial skills and provide experiential connections to their social studies and science curricula. Students visited the Preserve in June for their spring expedition to map a new trail path from the camp site location to the archery range. Trail building expert Herb Davis helped guide the students while they recorded trail data on GPS units. This fall, the students will create maps with the data and develop interpretive loops that use the trails to teach visitors about relevant topics to the Preserve, like resource management, wildlife, history, and geology. Stay tuned for further developments!
Thanks to support from many partner organizations and funders, the Preserve has an active water quality monitoring program that provides important baseline data for the watershed while offering hands-on educational opportunities for area youth.
The Foundation is proud to provide an incentive to encourage students in middle and high school to pursue topics like wildlife, conservation, habitat, and ecology. Each year, the Foundation awards qualifying students at Ennis schools with $50 to $100 prizes for exceptional projects. Starting in 2011, the Foundation included Ophir School and Lone Peak High as well.
Each year, the Jack Creek Preserve Foundation awards scholarships to two students who are entering college to study wildlife conservation or related fields. Learn more on our scholarship page.